Buffy 10/01/02 "Beneath You"
 

Just caught the next episode of Buffy, so here are some spoilers for those interested...

I just want you to know I'm staring intently at that black spoiler box, testing my will power to not highlight it and read.

Tomorrow night will come soon enough....

Me too. *chants new mantra* I will not be a spoiler whore this season. I will not be a spoiler whore this season. I will not be a spoiler whore this season.

~wis

I love spoilers. In fact I'm such a big goof I'm reading season 7 spoilers and I'm only up to season 4 right now (damn you FX!).

Well, for those that can't wait, the episode is already floating around cyberspace in the Buffy newsgroup. And yeah, spoiler free is the only way to go!! Lots, of good revelations in the episode with a chilling ending.

It was a pretty good episode. I want to say more, but I will wait until everyone else gets a chance to see it tonight!

Hope the episode is a good one and not some creature of the week like the previews make it look.

I thought this episode was AMAZING:)

Not a bad episode at all.

My favorite line:

Good episode.

where have i seen the chick who played "Nancy" before?

Never thought I would say this, and it still might be too soon, but I am actually starting to like Dawn! :) She still whines occasionally, but she is a little easier to be warm towards.



Overall, the show is turning out much better than last season and is delivering the goods. Hope the writers keep up the good work. :thumbsup:

Good episode, yeah i think this may be an interesting season, im still stumped from like all the people spike was talking to first episode, and spike in general, but this should be interesting...

fantastic episode.

it really feels much like the old show again. and i love it!


cranky.

I am still confused about whats up with Spike

I am as well with regards to the chip. Is it still there? By tonight's episode I couldn't really tell, it was almost just reactionary regarding the incident with Ronnie. But he has so many other things going on in his head it's hard to tell.

I agree. This episode was great I have a feeling the episodes will continue to get better and better...hmmm wonder what they'll do for Halloween?

Yeah he still has the chip in there. I think he tried to get the chip removed at the end of last season but ended up getting his soul back. He flintched when he stabbed the guy when he turned from the worm back to human. I thought his performance at the end was great. His soul is back so he's getting flooded with all sorts of regret, guilt and stuff. Completely confused, lost, and sick of himself. Kind of like how Darla was when she got her soul in Angel.

Speaking of Angel, I think Spike should go visit him.

Spike can hit demons, therefore Anya's now able to be harmed by him. Spike can also hit Buffy, since she came back from the dead "different". But he still can't hurt humans, hence his moment of pain after hurting the ex-boyfriend (the only "human" he hurt in the episode). He's still got the chip.

Great episode, BTW.

Was I the only one who thought that when Spike stabbed the guy he seemed to kind of flinch out of anticipation for the pain from the chip, but then looked kind of confused as if there was no pain?

When I first watched it, I thought that he had the pain, and was surprised because he hadn't registered "human" yet and/or didn't expect the chip to affect him with his newfound soul.

But I just pulled that scene up again, and now I think I'm leaning towards your view of it. Spike's reaction just didn't seem severe enough for what he had done based on older episodes...

Yes, spike still has his chip.

he went to Africa to get his soul back, he wanted to be a better man for Buffy. He said(paraphrasing here) that if he had a soul, he would not have tried to rape her. To steal a line from As Good As It Gets, Buffy makes him want to be a better man.

All the voices he hears are the those of his victims. It seemed that at times they were taking over his body, he's possessed. Or maybe he's just experiencing 200 years worth of remorse all at once.

Is it next Tuesday yet??

Was that a wink at Alias at the start? Could be just me - having watched most of that marathon this weekend.

I thought this ep. started off pretty good, but the ending was right out of last season, though the pacing was much quicker. Instead of dragging the Spike story for a long time, they revealed the soul already. And I guess he's hearing the slayers he killed and thats why he knows the line from Buffy's dream?

Was that a wink at Alias at the start?
 

I thought that also. And do not even watch Alias.....

Anyways. It was fun a episode. I laughed out loud
a couple of times. Little tired of the Buffy/Spike relationship
going on & on again this season. Glad when Willow
rejoins the gang again. The whole England thing was
a bust IMO.

I thought he was confused because he didn't expect him to turn back human. But you can be right too. We'll see in the next episodes.


Hmmm... interesting assumption. I was wondering how he knew about Buffy's dream. She looked a bit surprised when he said it too.

Re: Was that a wink at Alias at the start?
 

Glad that others thought that was some kind of reference to Alias. I don't watch the show either and was fearful of getting reamed if I posted it here. But I guess others saw it as well.

I love the show. I miss Willow and I'm preparing for some serious crying when she comes back. I think great things are gonna happen this season, but I sure wouldn't consider the show to be as happy and light as I read that it would be.

It's been pretty heavy stuff so far. But in a good way.

I thought it resembled Run Lola Run myself.

Ditto here. Girl with red hair running in Germany. Run Lola Run came to my mind right away.

OK, I may have been wrong about Spike :confused:

I usually am the one saying "great episode" when others don't - but I have to say I thought this one was very choppy. The High School.....the Worm...Spike's confession.... It really didn't have a flow to it at all. I thought Spike's final speech could have been better, and the whole worm thing was very lame.

Last ep. I said Dawn didn't annoy me, this time she did (just like the old days) especially when she got in Buffy's face over not telling her about seeing Spike.

Oh, well - there is always next week!

I agree.

Oh, unmistakably a Run Lola Run reference:)

i agree. it looked as if he was expecting blinding pain....but got none. which confused him even further. perhaps regaining his soul deactivated the chip?

then again...the govt. put it there. it's probably broken.

Yup, that's what I thought, too. Running, red hair, and the music was almost exactly the same...

I love crazy, wacky Spike. Weirdly edgy.

My favorite line was something along the lines of Spike's "When did your sister become unbelievably scary?"

The look on Dawn's face was so stoic and menacing when she delivered her "You have to sleep, don't you" speech.

BTW, anyone ever think that one of the things that vampires fear (besides beheadings and a stake in the heart) is the "dawn" (of daylight) itself. It makes for a good pun if they ever did elect to go with a Dawn show later.

I thought the last 10-15 minutes where Buffy finally figures out what's wrong/right with Spike were really good drama. I love it when Buffy pieces together the bits of data and comes to the right conclusion. Marster got a juicy bit of dialogue and ran with it. He nailed that scene. SMG's tear at the end was a good touch as Buffy's realization of what's happened to Spike (what he's gone through to recover his soul) hits her just as hard.

Also, I think that with Spike's soul restored, the chip no longer causes him excruciating pain if he causes pain to another human. Sure, he's still got his vamp side, but he's now a vamp with a conscience, so his feelings of guilt is the "new chip in his head" but it now allows him to hit humans without further pain in the brain.

To me it really makes no sense to have the chip in his head at this point, his conscience is going to take care of that now. I think all the voices have fried the circuits anyway:)

Forgive as I do not watch Angel, but didn't Darla die in the first season of Buffy? Oh well.

I think James Marsters did a good job acting when he was in the church. If that guy can shake the "Buffy" label, he might have an actual future in acting ahead of him. I thought Anya was funny in her little bit. She is basically a demon that is now riding the fence with no real sense of direction. She tries to be evil once more, but still has good left in her. This might be a major plot point on down the road, especially since Emma Caufield has stated she will not be back should Buffy return for another season (which I hope it doesn't.) Like I said earlier, Dawn was nowhere near as annoying as she was last year, but I don't think she needs a series to herself.

Ok, help me out here guys. Are the guys in the hooded cloaks trying to kill those next in line to be the slayer and if so how do they know? No new slayer should be called with one alive and one in jail. Is another being call because of when Buffy died when she was sacrificing herself for Dawn? I am finding these new episodes confusing. I probably am thinking too much

They are known as slayers-in-training (waiting) and Watchers know who these girls are going to be when the time comes. Although the 'Lola' one from this epsiode may have only been a dream the previous one was indeed killed.

Was it coincidence? 'Ronny and Nancy'

Here I go again with the contrary opinion.

Personally I've found the first two episodes of the new season fairly pedestrian. As someone above mentioned, neither episode "flows" very well. We zip from set piece to set piece while only giving minor attention to the monster-of-the-week plots. And nothing irritates me more than endless recycled monster-of-the-week plots (see "The X-Files" for how NOT to handle these paranormal season fillers). If this is what people want to make Buffy seem more like "the good ol' days," then count me out. We've hopefully moved beyond the time where every episode had to be a rock-em, sock-em throwdown with this week's variant Hellmouth beastie. Those stock fisticuffs and vamp-spikings aren't the reason I come back week after week. I want to see the storylines between the characters progress. Those relationships - torn, frayed and strained as they are right now - are far more important than some stupid were-worm creature.

The weirdness with Spike should be much more involving than it is. I'm just not feeling for him . . . yet. Mostly because he's still a cipher two episodes post-soul return. So far, his unintellible ramblings are just that - completely unintelligible. Only the tinniest fragments of coherent thought were contained in that never-ending (capital-A) Acting capper on last night's episode.

And is it just me or is the sound on these latest episodes just piss-poor? I have to turn the volume on my set nearly to max in order to hear and understand the dialogue between the characters. Half the time, the actors are either mumbling or whispering their lightening-quick, pop-culture spattered lines. Muddying the sound only makes understanding the episodes that much more difficult.

Willow's sabbatical in the UK is a joke. Bring back after-school-special-druggie-Willow before indulging in any more of these angsty reaction shots of the hypothetical "ordeal" she's gone through in the land of tea and crumpets. Willow should have been shown interacting with the coven of elder witches to make that plot thread even remotely worthwhile. Her storyline feels cheap and perfunctory.

Oh, and Anya's a million times more annoying than Dawn ever was. I wasn't particularly enamoured of her character when she was an obsessive compulsive, money-grubbing, rude proto-human. Now that she's gone all vengeance-demon-y again - the "my heart's just not into it" storyline has absolutely no fizz. If Anya's just hanging around to act indignant and hurt any time Xander walks into a room, then just spike her in the chest and be done with it. With Anya's fifth-wheel status now becomeing fairly well established, just kicking around the Buffyverse with no apparent purpose, the death of Tara just rings all the more hollow.

But what's worse is the inevitably contrived manner in which the Scoobies are going to have to pull together and become the same ol' gang. I can't believe that we'll get a realistic Scoobie reunion. All these tensions between the gang will most likely get glossed over when the "big bad" rears its CGI head. I dread its arrival - but obviously not for the typical reasons.

grunter awaits the usual, pithy "if you don't like it, don't watch it" comments sure to follow

That seemed pretty clearly to be the reaction. I like how everyone is stating as fact, though, that he still has it.

Personally I really, really enjoyed last night's episode. I think James Marsters is doing a fantastic job so far.